Sea Wolf - Leaves in the River (2007)

1) Leaves in the River; 2) Winter Windows; 3) Black Dirt; 4) The Rose Captain; 5) Middle Distance Runner; 6) You’re a Wolf; 7) Song for the Dead; 8) Black Leaf Falls; 9) The Cold, the Dark & the Silence; 10) Neutral Ground

More cosy and comfortable singer/songwriter indie rocking, effectively an extension of the preceding EP. But maybe more isn't better in this case.

Key tracks: "Winter Windows", "You're a Wolf", "The Cold, the Dark & the Silence"

I have a soft spot for indie singer/songwriters and over the course of time I’ve heard a lot of them: my period of exponential musical growth happened to coincide with when it started getting easy for any musician to publish their music over the internet, and I’ve ended up gravitating towards a lot of guitars (often acoustic) plucking moody melodies. Some have become collection mainstays, countless others have faded back away as quickly as they appeared in the first place. Despite how I still have the actual physical CD, Alex Brown Church’s Sea Wolf outfit is much more closely aligned with the latter than it is with the former. Leaves in the River sounds instantly familiar, but it’s because it’s been recorded under countless different names by hundreds of artists and Church hasn’t really found his own voice - as a songwriter, lyricist or literally. 

He can write a good melody though. He’s generally a decent songwriter who goes through his soft indie folk in an enjoyable manner that makes for good background music, but now and then he busts out a song that shows he’s capable of much more as well. On Leaves in the River they’re “Winter Windows” and “The Cold, the Dark & the Silence” in particular, as they do what very little else on the album does and command attention as they grip with their hooks and entice with their decidedly different sounds compared to the rest of the album: the former stars organs and keyboards and sports a whimsical rhythm worlds away from the rest of the album, while the latter is carried by a steady processed beat and a jangly guitar. They both also push out a different, more evocative kind of charisma from the normally a bit too calm and collected Church. “You’re a Wolf”, the cello-accentuated, quickly-paced highlight of the pre-album EP Get to the River Before It Runs Too Low finds its second home here in a completely unchanged form and becomes the album’s heart and centre point. All three jump and stand out from the general peaceful lull of the rest of the album: one where pretty but nondescript melodies are gently picked under a smooth vocal. It makes for nice rainy day listening but falls short of grasping any personal hold.

This wasn’t really an issue on the aforementioned Get to the River Before It Runs Too Low EP because its brief length and the resulting focus didn’t allow it to crop up. The album is more of the same that the EP offered in sound and style, just with a little more polish in production which you can notice, but can’t say if it’s for better or worse. On paper that sounds like a winning formula, but in full length format the relative ‘ordinariness’ Sea Wolf slips into is accentuated. You can’t really criticise the album – or Church for that matter – for it, but it makes it hard to squeeze any great detail out of it either.

Leaves in the River has an earnestness and warmth to it that arguably makes it the best one out of the Sea Wolf full-lengths, so it has that going on for it. Considering it’s a pleasant listen, damning it with faint praise feels mean – unfortunately, it’s just not gripping enough to have ever elevated into anything more over the years.

Rating: 6/10

Sea Wolf - Get to the River Before It Runs Too Low EP (2007)

1) You’re a Wolf; 2) The Garden That You Planted; 3) I Made a Resolution; 4) Ses Monuments; 5) I Don’t Know If I’ll Be Back This Time

A short fix of cosy comfort food singer/songwriter indie rock, with big highlights.

Key tracks: "You're a Wolf", "Ses Monuments", "I Don't Know If I'll Be Back This Time"

There’s something rather embarrasingly music nerdy in thinking an EP is an artist’s best release - and double cliché hipster points if it’s their debut EP - but the format simply suits some artists nicely for one reason or another. Sea Wolf is an artist like this because the shorter format stops him from walking astray. Alex Brown Church is a decent songwriter who can write a really good, memorable song but who isn’t so strong that he could do it consistently for a full album. The closest he’s gotten is the debut Leaves in the River, but the oddly slick production is at odds with the material on it. So, a bite-sized chunk where every song matters, recorded in relation to Leaves in the River but in a less produced setting sounds like it could just be the exact right thing. And it is.

Get to the River Before It Runs Too Low doesn’t bring anything new to the table or even re-invent something, but it’s good. Church’s autumnal log cabin indie rock has a good sound, the melodies are strong and Church himself has a soft, calm tone that’s pleasant to listen to. That’s all the EP really needs. Part of Get to the River’s charm is that it doesn’t try hard to be a grand entrance or pull off any special tricks off its sleeve - it simply flows effortlessly without any hurry, gently strumming along so naturally it’s actually quite soothing to listen. Church falls squarely into a camp populated by hundreds of other songwriters like him, but for five songs he makes a really good argument to spare him some time.

“You’re a Wolf” is the obvious lead track - besides effectively being the lead single of the subsequent album, it’s got a punchier pace to the rest of the EP and is a little bit sharper with its hook. To put it short, it’s the most immediate of the bunch and serves as a fitting introduction to the world of Sea Wolf. On Leaves in the River it’s the easy highlight pick, but the rest of this release actually measures up to it pretty great in its own way. “The Garden That You Planted” is lush and autumnal, a pretty rainy day mood piece that says a lot with fairly few tricks. “I Made a Resolution” and “Ses Monuments” inject a little energy into the proceedings and follow in the footsteps of “You’re a Wolf”, though with a little less shine in their sound. Both could have been bombastically produced indie rock anthems in another lifetime: here, they are down to earth in their arrangement but those grand melodies are still there. The surprise ace in the sleeve of the EP turns out to be the closer “I Don’t Know If I’ll Be Back This Time”, though. It’s just Church and an organ for two minutes, but it’s a case where a simple arrangement ends up creating a spell-binding atmosphere: the two sounds form a mixture that has all the world’s content weariness on its shoulder, ready to be laid down as soon as the song finishes. It’s not quite a lullaby but it’s an effective farewell.

The 18 minutes goes by pretty fast and you could also say a bit too fast, considering how enjoyable the run through the five songs is. But as explained, the brevity helps to keep the EP a solid listen and if nothing else, it serves as a good segue to Leaves in the River. Even so, Get to the River Before It Runs Too Low isn’t a hidden treasure that would transcend its particular stylistic pigeon hole into something that’s a must listen - it’s the best Sea Wolf release, but not because it contains something unique and golden the subsequent albums didn’t have. It’s simply five consistently good, straightforward songs presented by a frontman who does his job just fine, and it doesn’t need to be anything more to warrant a spin. 

Rating: 8/10